Julie Ann is playing cupid!

Every month we have the honour of publishing posts from guest designers who are the winner from previous challenges. We have a great project from one of our talented February Top 3 badge winners today...

Julie Ann
magpieheaven

"I was so excited to hear that I had been chosen as one of the Top 3 for my Painty Pleasures entry for the February Challenge at Country View Crafts. It was such a thrill to be selected, as I’d really enjoyed the fun of using paint with the new Lynne Perrella stamps: I’ve loved her detailed designs almost from the moment I began crafting seriously. That was around two years ago, although I’ve loved creating everything from little books for my toys to read to hand-sewn notebooks for the endless lists I need to make these days! I started craft blogging back in April 2013 when my blog, Magpieheaven fluttered into the unknown. I can hardly believe April is my first blogaversary! Although I started as most people do, making greeting cards, my first real crafty experiment was an exploding box which I made for a friend’s birthday using PaperArtsy stamps. I was quite pleased with the result and sent some pics to Leandra of PaperArtsy who suggested I start a blog and that was the beginning of a love affair with all things inky and painty! I live in Bromley with my long-suffering and patient family of two grown-up children and husband who’ve grown accustomed to sharing their home with ever-increasing stacks of corrugated card; teetering towers of Distress Inks and a mum, who in between tutoring English Literature paints with Cheesecake, Chocolate Pudding, Guacamole and Toffee!"

"I was delighted when Chris emailed me to say that I had been chosen as one of the top 3 in the Country View Crafts February Challenge, Painty Pleasures. I was really thrilled and privileged to be asked to do the Guest Design spot today and to have the opportunity to interpret the Country View Crafts April Challenge ‘New Beginnings’. I wanted to capture the idea of the new beginnings Spring offers so I chose to alter a little mobile wooden heart within a heart and to make its focal image a winged cherub – maybe the lady’s face on the butterfly is that of his mother, Venus, the goddess of love! He could be Cupid, the young god of Love just discovering the new delights all around him. I liked the way the mobile turned in the breeze so that I could position the cherub/cupid as if he were trying to catch butterflies on a leaf. I used Fresco Greens, blues and yellows, Grunge Paste through a Clear Scraps stencil of trees, Treasure Gold and Shrink Plastic butterflies die-cut from a Sizzix butterfly die and stamped with Lynne Perrella images and a resin figure and flower. If you would like to see in more detail how I created this little mobile, please pop over to my blog http://magpieheaven.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out more. I do hope my make will inspire you to create something and link it to the Country View Crafts ‘New Beginnings’ Challenge."

This is gorgeous Julie Ann, thank you!

Julie Ann is celebrating a blogaversary herself this month so please share some love and visit her blog if you can!

We will have more in a few days. Have fun! xxx